Verified Document

Government Subsidies And Alternative Fuel Technologies The Case Study

Government Subsidies and Alternative Fuel Technologies The government should not subsidize alternative fuel options. This is due to the fact that a free market that follows the basic supply and demand curve should be allowed to function as a product of the available technology. This is to say that fossil fuels and other related fuels will continue to stay in demand as long as there is a supply of them and the willingness to pay. Government subsidies disrupt the supply curve as well as the willingness to pay for alternative fuels. Such subsidies create incentives to follow and develop technologies which themselves have no natural market based upon principles of supply and demand.

Technology itself cannot create a new future, s to speak. However, humans, armed with the proper technology and free market dynamics can. This means that as humans develop new technologies, and these technologies become cheaper and more readily available, people's willingness to pay drops, sending the demand...

This in turn creates an incentive for companies and individuals to develop technologies as cheaply and as quickly as possible in order to take advantage of the demand for such technologies. Once the demand for fossil fuels subsides due to scarcity or other environmental concerns, other technologies will emerge naturally, due to free market forces. Government subsidies only get in the way of free market forces and force both developers and consumers down a specific, often politically driven path relative to technology.
Incentives for businesses to adopt new technology are usually fiscal in nature. This means that unless the market can support a technology, from a demand standpoint, it won't be pursued or pushed any further. This can sometimes limit the types of technological exploration but it guarantees that first a market will exist for such technologies and that the government subsidies are not creating an artificial demand or market for something that…

Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Alternative Fuel for Lotus Alternative
Words: 2145 Length: 7 Document Type: Term Paper

Concerns about the availability of fuel also slows adoption. In a simulation representing California, entrepreneurs opened alterative fuel stations in urban areas but not in less-populated rural areas where demand is initially lower. According to Science Daily (2007), urban alternative fuel drivers must then avoid the rural areas, reducing the appeal of alternative fuel vehicles and slowing their sales everywhere. In theory, the fuel efficiency of alternative fuel vehicles

Government Role Renewable Energy and Sustainable Development
Words: 2667 Length: 9 Document Type: Essay

Government Role Renewable energy and sustainable development Why Australian Government should lead the initiative? Governmental initiatives Supply side interventions: Rebates and feed-in tariffs Renewable energy is derived from sources that are naturally replenish-able and supply of energy from these sources is infinite. The main purposes served by using renewable energy are many such as generation of power, transport fuel production, and for heating of houses and other living places. Except the naturally occurring main difference

Ethanol for Fuel in the
Words: 2822 Length: 6 Document Type: Term Paper

4). Likewise, in the same article, Kay Martin of the Ventura County, California public works agency is quoted as saying, "From a macroeconomics or macro-environmental perspective, it just makes sense." The need to build an infrastructure for production of bio-fuels creates economic opportunities. Of course, not everybody is so enthusiastic. To grow corn, diesel tractors are required to plant, fertilize and harvest it with substantial coal-fired electricity needed for the

Quantum Technologies: A Non-Financial Analysis
Words: 1015 Length: 4 Document Type: Term Paper

The company is itself a major driver of innovation in this area, and the efficiency of renewable energy engines and power generators will decrease the cost of operations for the company even as the same products and efficiency increases will enhance and increase its sales (Quantum 2011). Twnety years from now, it is expected that major utility grids will at least be in the beginning stages of being capable

Why Fossil Fuel Is Preferably to Nuclear Fuel
Words: 3705 Length: 12 Document Type: Term Paper

Business Nuclear power, under current conditions, is characterized by much lower regular emissions compared to energy from fossil fuel burning. But, it poses its own unique hazards, of which the most notable is risk of industrial accidents (e.g. Chernobyl) that have acute, long-term repercussions over huge areas. There are also security risks presented by vast inventories of materials that have the potential of being utilized as nuclear weapons; fossil fuels pose

Brazil Biofuel This Work Will
Words: 2030 Length: 7 Document Type: Term Paper

The economy may be strong in some areas but weak in others as the fuel industry seeks to deprive the culture of traditional food bearing crops, in exchange for fuel bearing ones, and decreases the biodiversity of the nation in the process. "... with ethanol and biodiesel as a springboard, Brazil's President...Lula da Silva aims to turn his country into an energy superpower --...environmentalists warn that although bio-fuels reduce

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now